profile eval please, heidi

[basso25@]

heidi: i'd love your thoughts on my profile as well, please.

this is me:
-30 year old marketing/advertising professional with 8 years of work experience at leading global agencies (ogilvy & mather, mccann erickson, ddb) working on fortune 50 brands (mastercard, ibm).
-3.7 cum gpa from nyu - bs in communication studies
-dual citizen of japan and us; born/raised in tokyo, japan (bilingual)
-gmat: tbd (aiming for around 700)
-need mba to develop foundational business skills + transition into management consulting - specifically digital/new/nontraditional media
-long term goal is to serve as cmo of a top multi-national corporation, based in asia
-long long term goal: play a contributing role in japan's next renaissance
-currently located in honolulu; lived in nyc for 7 years (tokyo and florence prior to then)

look fwd to hearing from you!!

yoichiro

[Heidi Granner]

Yoichiro,

Thanks for your post.

Your academics appear to be on par with top schools. GPAs average 3.4-3.6 and average GMAT scores range from 700-730 for top 20 programs. Your communication studies degree will help you stand out from all of the econ and engineering majors applying to b-school, but it will be important to demonstrate quantitative abilities somewhere in your application (80+% on Quant section of GMAT, As/Bs in quantitative courses in undergrad, quantitative aspects to your work, and/or getting an A in a quantitative business course in a part-time program).

Your work experience should be an asset assuming you have achieved promotions every 2 years or so. Your career goals seam reasonable given your background, but you might want to clarify and further research your short-term goal as the adcom is not likely to be familiar with any management consulting firms that focus on digital/new media.

Your multicultural background should also be an asset to your application.

You haven't mentioned your extracurricular activities, but those will be an important aspect to the application as well. The adcom will be looking for leadership experiences and well-rounded interests.

Assuming your target GMAT score and a good history of extracurricular involvement, I suggest thinking of schools such as Fuqua, Ross, Darden, Anderson, and Johnson as "target" schools and schools like Booth, Kellogg, Columbia, and Tuck as "reach" schools.

Good luck! And feel free to reach out to [email protected] for a free detailed profile evaluation.

Best,
Heidi

[basso25@]

heidi:

thank you very much for the response.

-noted regarding management consulting focus; i'm "just" articulating my desired focus poorly (clearly need to fix prior to submission).
-i've been promoted 3 times
-here are my extracurrics:

-marathon coach (2:50 marathoner)
-founding partner and cmo of louddesk, llc (online contract management system)
-board member - american marketing association, hawaii chapter
-guest lecturer + public speaking engagements - numerous university and industry events
-director, st. mary's international school alumni (private school i went to in tokyo)

would love your thoughts on whether hbs is even worth applying to.